


All the World's a Stage

by Nord_Ronnoc



Series: Mass Foundations [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3, Fallout 4
Genre: Alien Planet, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Crossover, Expanded Universe, Female Character of Color, Female Protagonist, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Minor Original Character(s), Multiple Crossovers, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Outer Space, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Rewrite, Role-Playing Game, Season/Series 09, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2018-11-09 17:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11109372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nord_Ronnoc/pseuds/Nord_Ronnoc
Summary: Something brought the Doctor and the TARDIS to an alternate Earth ravaged by nuclear war. There, he encountered a lone wanderer and together, they contended with strange creatures and powerful beings. To find the source of these troubles, they would have to work together and travel throughout the multiverse, willingly or not. All in a day’s work for the Doctor.





	1. Opening

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone. It took me a bit to decide whether I should do a rewrite of All the World's a Stage, but going by this prologue, you can guess what that answer was. I want to do it because, to me, the original version was lacking in some areas. There were some things left unexplained, the plot point regarding the glass creatures was rushed, etc. I hope that this would be an improvement.

_“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”_

_—Murphy’s Law_

A spaceship, either very cleverly or very clumsily disguised as a police box, tumbled through the space-time vortex. As it landed on a street in London, a strange wheezing and groaning sound echoed in the night. Inside was a large control room sprawling beyond the deceptive doors, its many surfaces and devices awash in a gold glow. Everyone who passed through those police box doors for the first time all commented on the most remarkable thing about the box: not the many dials or central component of moving glass, but how much bigger it sprawled on the inside.

By the many-sided room was a pale and tall man with a thin face and a mop of wild silver hair. His hair went along quite well with his thick eyebrows, sharp blue eyes, and a hooked nose. His dark coat and trousers would give anyone the impression that he was a rock star still on tour. That old man was a time traveler, a Time Lord from the lost planet Gallifrey, and he was known as the Doctor.

“Whew! That was a bit of an adventure, Doctor. More so than usual.”

He wasn’t alone. He turned away from the monitor. In front of him was a lithe young woman, short and rosy-skinned. Her brown hair held by a headband, she wore a red dress and a pair of sneakers with matching colors.

“Indeed, Clara. At least we made it the night before the parent-teacher conference, correct?” The Doctor grinned rather awkwardly. “Never a fan of them myself. I wasn’t so well-behaved when I was a child.”

Clara Oswald, the young woman, rolled her eyes. “Of course. Can’t say I’m surprised.” She walked to the only exit.

“Try not to get yourself into trouble while I’m away,” she called out, like a parent requesting their child to behave. “And don’t be late, okay?”

With that, she stepped out of the TARDIS and closed the door behind her.

The Doctor smirked and crossed his arms. “Ah, you know me better than that, Clara. I _always_ find trouble, wherever that may be,” he said to no one in particular.

As if on cue, frantic numbers flashed on the screen. The alarms blaring out caught the Doctor by surprise. Before he could analyze the data, the whole room—no, the entire TARDIS—shook violently, as if in the middle of an earthquake. He could barely keep his balance as he held onto the console.

Sparks flew in all directions, and loose wires dangling about. The lighting flickered a fiery red before everything turned pitch black.

In hindsight, the Time Lord wished he hadn’t said those words.


	2. A Touch of Glass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've cut the Big Mountain arc out of story. I wanted to focus on Jocelyn Song, my take on the Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3, and how she was doing after the events of the game and how she got back on her feet, with the Doctor as this story's deuteragonist. So originally, the Doctor would show the holotape that featured the Courier explaining what happened to him and his experiment in improving the Transportalponder, motivating her to find him. Plus, I had a plan of another storyline for her, which doesn't involve finding the Courier, which made me realize that didn't make sense. But don't worry; I have plans for the Big Mountain part, likely in a different story with a different protagonist.
> 
> I just don't see a clear direction with this part. The prologue stays, of course.

Consciousness returned to the Doctor. With a pained groan, he stood up to his feet, clinging to the console for support. The main control room was still well-lit, sparing him the pain of stumbling around in the dark. He moved the monitor toward him and pressed buttons and flicked switches. The screen lit up, revealing an image gathered from one of the satellites. He would have dismissed it as his own world by the early 2010s, if not for a brown, sickly glow over select parts of the planet, the year being 2286.

“Something happened to this world. Radiation, most likely,” he muttered to himself, his expression turning grim. He took another look at the readings. According to his current coordinates, he was somewhere in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

He looked around the room. “Something’s not right here,” he mused. He stood up straight and started pacing around the console. His hand on his chin, the Time Lord fell deep into his thoughts.

“Normally, traveling between parallel universes would drain the TARDIS of all energy. Without the Time Vortex, it would be out of commission. Now, if I were prepared, it would be a temporary setback.” He snapped his fingers together.

“Question: if all that applies, then why does the TARDIS still have power? Why is it still running?” He pointed his finger upward. “Answer: There is one of two possibilities. One: The Time Vortex also connects to this universe. Two: A rift in time and space has appeared, preserving the TARDIS’s energy.”

The Doctor looked at the monitor after pressing more buttons. The monitor now read:

_RIFT DETECTED_

_SEVERITY: LOW_

_SIZE: SMALLER THAN BELGIUM_

“Well, that sounds more than anticlimactic,” the Doctor commented. “Question is, where is it?”

Another command prompt and the monitor now read:

_SCANNING – IN PROGRESS…_

He scoffed. “Of course, you ol’ girl. Of course.”

He was about to step away from the console, if not for the sudden buzzing coming out of the radio attached to the console. The Doctor recognized it was a distress signal.

“This is Knight Jefferson of the Brotherhood of Steel, requesting backup,” the man on the radio spoke. By the tone of his voice, he was trying to stay calm despite whatever chaos went on in the background. “We have arrived in Baltimore at 0432 hours today. Something has been picking off my men. They're not deathclaws, super mutants, not even those ferals. Whatever these creatures are, they're worse. Much worse.”  The radio buzzed as the man paused before continuing.

“There were… eight of us. Now, there’s me and Initiate Samuel. There’s a RobCo facility in Baltimore. You’ll recognize it when you see the sign at the front. We’re holed up in one of the storage rooms. Whatever you do, avoid the broken pieces of glass. I repeat, avoid the broken glass. They form bodies around them. That’s how they got to my team!”

There was a faint echo, almost like a growl, followed by banging noises soon after. Another voice, that of a younger man, said in a panicked tone, “Sir? They’re here.”

The older man sighed as if he resigned himself to his fate. “I see.” A hum sounded out. It wasn’t the man humming. It was a machine humming to life. “Relay the signal and loop this message. Steel be with us.”

The message ended right there before looping back to the start. The Time Lord turned off the radio. He heard enough.

“I don’t know if I’m too late to save him,” the Time Lord stated. “But whatever is causing this nightmare, I’ll put an end to it. Wherever the universe—or any universe, really—call for help, it shows its true face. I show mine by my response.”

He set out to the exit behind him but paused, nodding with a small smirk on his face. “Hm, I probably should say that again someday. With some refinement, of course.” He smiled. “Bet Clara would love to hear it.”

Stepping out of the TARDIS, he looked around and saw crumbling, ruined buildings that stretched for miles. The streets were filled with rusted and broken down 1950s-style cars, something that made the Time Lord raise an eyebrow. What inconvenienced him as he walked around was the debris that randomly fell from some old building many years ago. Centuries, from the looks of it.

Another thing that hindered him was the street lights. He dreaded that at any moment, a streetlight could shorten out and leave him in utter darkness. Either that, or it would flicker in and out.

He looked up at the nighttime sky, still pacing around. “At least there are stars,” he remarked to no one in particular.

Aside from the howling winds and the scuttles of old paper flying about, there was an uneasy silence filling the air. He never saw a single soul nor creature.

Of course, he mused. Pockets of radiation, a ruined city; it was clear this Earth had suffered from atomic annihilation, as some had predicted back on his Earth.

Going down another block away from the blue box and around a corner, he saw a sign flashing and flickering on the front side of an otherwise unassuming office building, only about a few stories tall. There was only one word plastered on the wall: RobCo.

With a determined look, the Doctor brisk across the street and opened the double-doors. Inside was a large lobby room complete with formerly comfy chairs and a desk at the other end of the room. What was surprising was that the lights were still on and functioning, albeit yellow and worn down from neglect. The plain paint had peeled off from the walls and ceilings due to centuries worth of wear and neglect.

He even tasted something in the air. “Mold. And… dust particles.” He licked the dust off his fingers before spitting them out. His face wrinkled in disgust. “How this managed to get through environmental regulations is beyond me,” he remarked sardonically. “Oh, right…”

There were also inert robots placed on display all around him. Most of them were biped in shape with stiff legs and wiggly tubes for arms, like they shameless ripped off _The Forbidden Planet_ and other B-movies. One robot that stood out was very large and very bulky, standing on four-legged wheels; the other was a round torso with three arms and eyes folded toward it.

There was no doubt this Earth stuck with everything about the 1950s to the bitter end.

Much to his disappointment, however, each inscription was scratched off in some chaotic pattern.

Everywhere he looked, from some of the bathrooms to the offices, there were signs of an intense battle that he was glad he missed out on. Scorch marks on the floor and the walls, random metal pieces laid out everywhere, and strangely enough, claw marks, three parallel to each other and in equal length and depth.

And on every occasion, he could hear heavy footsteps above him, bits of wood falling off, trailing along with them. While the Doctor’s hearts nearly leaped with joy, he couldn’t help but wonder: was it Jefferson? Samuel? Or was it someone else, a guest like him?

While exploring another office adjacent to the lobby, he spotted a glowing screen in the darkness. When he crept closer, he found it was a blocky computer with an integrated keyboard. He couldn’t find a mouse, though.

A smile spread wide across his face. “Oh, I do love those pop-up buttons. Everything was so _swipy_ these days!” he made a sweeping motion with his right hand before pressing the red power button next to the screen.

A series of green letters line out as a block of the same color traveled to the right, spelling out:

**_ROBCO INDUSTRIES UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM_**  
**_COPYRIGHT 2075-2077 ROBCO INDUSTRIES_**  
**_-Server 16-_**

**_Welcome, Kevin Ross._ **

Below were several lines marked as dates. Pressing the enter key on the first one brought him to a log detailing his first day on the job. He found it really boring, so he skipped that one out. The next one detailed his date, claiming that how his girlfriend would always belong to him, and all that creepy and melancholic stuff.

The next log entry, and the next, and the next were all boring to him.

**_8/16/2077 – Nerd brought something_ **

Intrigued, the Doctor selected this one and pressed the enter key once more.

**_Out of the blue, one of the researchers came from another facility in Portland with a glass orb. He said he got it from an expedition in Afghanistan. He showed it to the others and I admit it does look rather pretty. Why he didn’t bring it over to the government, a museum, or whatever was beyond me.  Never got the chance to ask some questions._ **

**_My shift ended early, so I’m outta here._ **

**_********************_ **

**_8/30/2077 – That look in his eyes_ **

**_All I did was ask him how he was doing, and he gave me that look—the one that screamed, “I am going to kill you.” Aside from him muttering about the orb, he said he kept it in the basement, he said nothing. That creeped me out bad. I filed a complaint with HR and they said they would look into this. Matter of fact, he was never transferred here, like he decided to live here or something._ **

**_********************_ **

**_9/17/2077 – Whispers_ **

**_I swear to god, I thought someone was standing right next to me, whispering in my ear. But no one was at my desk. What the hell is going on?_ **

**_I’m leaving early. My boss will understand._ **

**_********************_ **

**_10/19/2077 – Incident_ **

**_Bastard scientist tried to attack my coworkers. All he got was being institutionalized. Good riddance. That wasn’t the end of it, however. Things have gotten worse since he left. It started out with glass breaking, mostly mirrors and windows. Our janitor wasn’t thrilled about cleaning up the mess. Neither was our boss._ **

**_We’ve been on a shoestring budget for a while, so we were had to cancel some projects to pay for the mess. Thrilling._ **

**_The other guys went in to investigate in the basement but didn’t bring anything up. All they told me was not to go in the basement and not to tell anyone. Didn’t stop me from writing this down. Idiots._ **

**_********************_ **

**_10/22/2077 – Friend got hurt_ **

**_Malcolm was at the hospital. He got cuts and bruises all. How he was alive was anyone’s guess. Someone or something attacked him with something sharp, which would explain a lot. I stopped by to check to see if he was okay. In the meantime, the police stopped by my workplace. Their investigations turned up empty. Were they slacking off or am I missing something here?_ **

**_I got a bad feeling about this._ **

Strangely enough, the next entry did not have a date, but it was titled. It was labeled ‘THAT ORB’.

**_As if the bombs falling wasn’t enough, the orb made that paradise in comparison._ **

**_The same thing that happened to the egghead was happening to me right now. It called to me, whispered my name. I couldn’t help myself, so I unlocked the door to the basement and looked inside. Now I wish I hadn’t._ **

**_Something had been killing my friends. I’m getting out of here with that spare hazmat suit I conveniently found. To hell with the radiation. If you want to live, then whatever you do, if the colors of the glass don’t match, AVOID THEM!_ **

**_If you don’t, well... don’t say I didn’t warn you._ **

The sound of breaking glass from a nearby room broke the Doctor’s concentration.

The Doctor craned his neck backward with a sigh. “Can’t I get a moment of peace to myself? Is that so hard to ask?”

More glass broke, this time from the hallway outside.

He turned around and stepped away from the terminal, his right foot stepping on something that crunched under his weight. He knelt to inspect what he stepped on. Some of the pieces of glass to the floor were of different colors, and they seemed to be moving on its own. Seconds later the small pieces formed into a smile and it wasn’t the friendly type.

His thoughts turned to what the last entry log on the terminal warned him about. Chitters, like glass pinging together, could easily be heard. He was not alone here.

A quick survey of the room revealed a plain, metal cabinet on the well-lit side of the room. With quiet footing, he hurried across, avoiding the ever-shifting pieces of glass on the floor. As he made it, he searched every inch of the cabinet, both in the inside and on the outside, for any piece of glass with mismatched colors. Finding nothing, the Doctor squeezed into the only spot he could fit into and shut the door.

It was dark and very difficult to move it, the worst nightmare a claustrophobe could ever have. The Time Lord slowed his breathing down to not draw attention to whatever was out there, looking for him. Aside from that, the other things he heard were more glassing pinging along with growling and hissing.

The noises went on for minutes. The Doctor considered himself lucky that whatever hadn’t found him yet.

Everything went quiet after that. He opened the door and hopped out of the cabinet. He made his way out of the office and surveyed the well-lit hallway. He did not want any nasty surprises waiting in the dark.

Finding nothing, he went to the stairs and onto the next floor. This one was very much like the one below: well-lit and empty but had several doors on both sides. As he stepped in, there was a loud crack, bringing his attention to the source, which came from the end of the hallway in front of him. He froze, his eyes wide open.

Something emerged from the shadows, and it was not organic.

It was roughly in shape of a lizard—larger than a dog—and made of glass shards of every possible color and opacity, with four legs of slightly varying lengths. Its head resembled that of a spider with three dark orb-like eyes at each of its face and perfectly smooth pincers at the front. Each spike lining on its back, from the tip of its tail to the base of its head, was a spiral. Its tail had curved upwards in the shape of a question mark, and larger shards jutted out from its underside at such extreme angles.

It wasn’t like any other creature he had seen and indeed it seemed impossible just by looking at it, but the Doctor had seen the impossible many times before.

The glass creature seemed to be going through the glass from a terminal that crashed on the floor. It sorted through the larger glass shards from the smaller ones with its tiny crystalline claws, sniffing at them.

The Doctor could barely make a move before the creature took notice of him.

“Good… kitty-spider… glass…” he whispered, his hands raised in front of him.

The creature hissed and pounced, zipping down the hallway like a lightning bolt. He would have made a run for it, if not for a sudden of blue light appearing behind the creature, disintegrating it instantly.

He looked and saw a large, imposing figure in the room at the end of the hallway.

“Are you okay?” the stranger asked as she stepped out of the room with footsteps that sounded like hydraulics doing its work. Her gray armor was massive, covering her from head to toe. Her helmet’s visor had angled downward, giving her quite a menacing look. The armor’s bulkiness, especially in the shoulders and torso, made her look like a tank on legs. Her weapons, including the rifle and the high-tech sledgehammer hanging at her side, further supported the assumption.

“I’m fine, thank you,” the Doctor answered, finally lowering his hands. He flared and rubbed his nostrils, then his lips, together to settle his nerves.

The woman approached the Doctor, towering over him by about half a meter or so. She took a glance at him, almost as if she was studying him. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking, no thanks to her helmet.

“Most scavengers are dirtier than you are. And they also carry junk and other stuff,” the stranger pointed out. “Who are you?”

The Doctor stepped past her and stared at the ash pile. “I’m the Doctor.” He turned at the armored stranger. “Nice to meet you.” He turned back at the pile and took a pinch of it. “So you came here to investigate the signal?” He tasted the pinch, only to spit it back out. Nothing out of the ordinary, he noted. “Either this Jefferson and this Samuel were very good at hiding or these things have already disposed of them already.”

“They’re dead.” She showed him dog tags hanging from her right hand. One tag informed him of a man’s expiration date, which went back hours before; the other had his name on it—Seth Jefferson.

“I see.” He hung his head low. “What a shame. Were you planning on retrieving them?”

She put the dog tags in a pouch wrapped around her waist. “Not a good time to talk about my dealings with the Brotherhood of Steel right now. One of the terminals I hacked into said some orb was causing this.”

“Of course.” The Doctor stood up. “Same terminal by Kevin Ross?”

“No, different person,” she corrected him.

He turned to her, finding himself gawking at a rifle that resembled a grenade rifle but with a blocky rifle held in her hands. “What’s that?”

The woman in armor lowered her rifle and briefly investigated it. “It’s a Holorifle. A friend of mine gave it to me couple years ago.”

“Tell me about that friend of yours.”

She paused, and he could sense that sense of sadness hiding behind her helmet. “He’s gone.” With that, she went past the Doctor. “You coming? The terminals say the orb’s in the basement. If destroying it could save lives, I’m all for it.”

“Of course,” the Doctor replied. _Nice to find someone willing to risk their lives for a good cause._ He started to head out and follow her, only to stop midway through. “Oh, and what’s your name?”

“My name’s Jocelyn Song. A lot of people called me the Lone Wanderer back in the Capital Wasteland,” the woman replied, looking back. She turned back to her general direction and continued walking, and the Doctor followed close behind.

* * *

They spent the next several minutes traversing from one room to another, their eyes alert for any of the glass creatures. Unfortunately, they had to travel upstairs to traverse around debris that blocked their way to the basement. Up there, on a walkway, as they snuck through the assembly line, they saw two of the creatures gnawing on one of the dome-shaped robots’ head.

Jocelyn was ready to fire her holorifle as she leaned against the rail. She hesitated when the Doctor laid a hand on her wrist, silently urging her not to get unwanted attention. She nodded in response and they passed through without incident, despite her armor making some noise with each step she took.

They arrived at a storage room on the ground floor, and the Doctor gazed around the area. The room was overfilled, stuffed with empty cabinets and broken terminals laid top. At the end of the room was a metal door with a cog in the center. To the right was a terminal mounted on the wall. Jocelyn hung her gun around her chest and approached the door. With steady hands, she gripped the cog and twisted it. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t get it open, let alone move it slightly.

“Need help?” the Doctor asked in a slight snide tone as he watched nearby.

“Nope, I’m good,” she grunted.

He cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “Doesn’t that armor enhance your strength?  I mean, just look at you! You’re huge wearing that thing!”

The Wanderer let go of the cog with a shake of her head and a sigh. “The door’s tied to this terminal, and it doesn’t look like there’s a lock to pick. They really don’t want this orb to be out.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Well, of course they don’t want it out! It didn’t really work out for them, don’t you think?”

She ignored his remark as she turned her attention to the terminal. When she pressed the power button, the keyboard unfolded into view. “Keep an eye out, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the Doctor nodded with a smirk, watching Jocelyn do her thing. A casual glance around the room, finding yet again none of the glass creatures in sight. He got a bad feeling about this.

With his arms folded in front of him, he couldn’t help but ponder in his mind. If this all could go well, then they would part ways without incident, and he would surely lose his chance to inquire about her history. Given her hesitation, it wasn’t a pleasant one. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to try.

“Earlier, you mentioned you this… Brotherhood of yours,” the Doctor spoke.

Jocelyn said nothing. He hoped she was focused on the terminal and not ignoring him. Because that would be rather rude of her.

He sighed as he rubbed his face. “Look. It’s clear you have a lot on your mind, but you don’t want to talk about it. That’s fine. Really. I understand. Not everybody wants to talk about their past traumas. But I think you want, you know…” He shrugged with curled lips. “Closure. Cathartics. Get it off your chest. Because if you don’t, you’re going to wonder for the rest of your life whether you would get another chance and regret not taking it the first time ‘round.” He paused for a second before taking a deep breath. “Wouldn’t you want to take that chance? It would do you a whole lot of good. Trust me on this.”

Finally, as if on cue, Jocelyn pressed enter on the right word flashing on the screen among lines of random symbols and other words that made no sense in rhyme or pattern. “All right, we’re in,” she said, relieved her attempt at hacking had worked. Inputting another commanded made the door open of its own accord. The cog sprung as the two outer parts sliding into the walls, the metal lowered into the floor with metal grinding against each other. It wasn’t a pleasant sound, to say the least. At least nobody else in their vacancy had heard it, judging by the silent response.

Ahead of them was a passageway wrapped in a thick blanket of darkness.

The Doctor took a step toward her. “Have you listened to a word I said?” he asked with a stern frown.

The Lone Wanderer turned on the lamplight at the side of her helmet, as if controlled by her thoughts. The headlight revealed a stairway just after a sharp turn to the left. “Yeah, I hear you.”

“Don’t you think this would be an excellent time?” He pointed at the passageway. “I mean, I’m sure this will be a long stairway.”

She picked up her rifle and braced it against her shoulder. “If anything happens to me, do you know how to defend yourself?”

He looked at Jocelyn. “Have I told you I’m not big on guns?”

She turned to the Doctor. With the way she tilted her helmet, he had this feeling she was giving him a curious look. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

 “I’ll explain later.”

“Okay,” said the Lone Wanderer, taking it in stride. Either that, or she wasn’t sure what to expect.

She was the first to enter. Since her headlight was the only source of light here, they had to take it slowly to where they stop as they descended on the stairs.

“Why don’t we start things out with you?” the Doctor asked. “So… where did you come from?”

“I grew up in a fallout vault not long after my mom died giving birth to me,” Jocelyn answered.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. My dad really loved her, said she was passionate about a lot of things. About life.”

“Sounded like your mother was a good person,” the Doctor commented. “What was your vault like?”

That question made her go quiet for a moment. “It was paradise down there. No fear, no worries, not much fighting, and I had people looking after me…” There was a wistful tone in her voice. “Until my dad left.”

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows, his mouth forming into a frown. “Your father doesn’t exactly like a role model to me.”

“He had a good reason,” she insisted. “Besides, my vault and many others like it were never meant to save anyone.”

“So they were experiments,” the Doctor guessed.

“Yes, Doctor. I could count the number of them that weren’t cruel on my hand. I’ve heard of a few vaults that did what they were advertised to do,” the Lone Wanderer explained. “Mine was designed to make sure nobody would enter, and nobody would ever leave. I escaped not long after my dad did, and I went out to look for him. Turns out he was looking for a GECK that would make Project Purity work properly. That’s short for the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, by the way. It’s designed to terraform the landscape to something livable for part of the planet.”

“And this project does what, exactly?”

“To provide clean water in the wasteland,” the Wanderer answered. “Where I came from, it was one of the worst places to live in. When I found my dad, we resumed the project, but…” She paused. “…but he died protecting me and his work.”

“And you went to the Brotherhood of Steel for help.”

“Yeah. It took a lot of effort in finding the GECK and retaking the facility,” said Jocelyn. “I had some help from a giant robot they found.”

“A giant robot.” The Time Lord had to resist forming that smile on his face. “Would love to see that.”

She let out a small chuckle. “You should’ve seen the thing in action.” She stopped in her tracks, and the Doctor nearly slipped and fell, bumping against her. Luckily, her armor was bulky enough to fill the space ahead of him and sturdy enough to have her hardly notice. As he regained his balance, she turned toward him. “Have you ever did so much and worked so hard to make things right, only to have everything just... fall apart around you?”

The Doctor sighed deeply, letting her words sink in enough to make his hearts throb. “More times than I can count.”

She said nothing, even as she looked away and went on ahead.

Just as the Doctor began to wonder if they would ever reach the bottom, their feet met the flat floor beneath them, her left hand meeting the handle of a plain metal door.

“Looks like this is the place,” she said. “Ready?”

The Doctor nodded. “Are you? I mean, you clearly are ready.”

Jocelyn opened the door quietly as it cracked softly, and they both stepped inside.

The basement was large and had little light, supported only by a single flickering light bulb attached to the ceiling. One of the few things in here was a plain pillar placed in the center of the room, crowned on top by a glowing, transparent orb. Surrounding the orb were marks all over, all glowing blue.

The other thing—or rather, things were the glass creatures by the dozen. They all seemed to be in a resting position, but they didn’t react when Jocelyn shone her lamplight on each of them. None of them made a move nor noise as if they were still as statues.

The Doctor went past his new companion and looked at one of the markings on the floor with furrowed eyebrows. It didn’t look like anything that lacked rhyme or reason. Rather, these ones were complex mathematical equations, dealing with the uncertainty principle, the measurements of a wormhole, and others that relate to wavelengths, quantum mechanics, and particle physics. Many of them were all about the many-worlds interpretation. A couple equations seemed far too incomprehensible for any human being to write.

He looked up at the orb as he rubbed his chin. Something bothered him about that thing. How did it survive for so long in such perfect condition? And how did it manage to withstand a nuclear war, of all things? To be fair for that last question, it was stored here. But that begged another question: Why didn’t anyone bother to destroy the orb? What, exactly, was stopping them?

For some reason, he wanted to touch it, just to see how it would react.

“Doctor?” the Lone Wanderer called out through a whisper. “Are you okay?”

The Doctor blinked as he spurred himself out of his thoughts. Before he even realized it, he was muttering to himself, and his hand was hovering centimeters away from the orb. He lowered his hand and straightened his posture, clearing his throat in the process. “Sorry, I… uh, got carried away.”

“Just don’t get yourself carried away, okay?” she replied.

A hum vibrated in the Time Lord’s teeth, which he found particularly odd. He looked back, and the orb suddenly lit up, taking on a blue hue like it deflected off a daytime’s skyline. As if in response to the orb, the glass creatures woke up and raised their heads. All of them screamed in unison, like multiple tuning forks playing all at once. The equations on the floor glowed of its own accord.

Before either of them knew it, the orb grew so bright they had to look away and close their eyes, lest they go blind. He collapsed in pain as a jolt of electricity coursed through his body.

When he came to, the Doctor stood up and found himself back in the TARDIS control room, same as he had left it. He looked around and saw Jocelyn also coming to her senses.

Jocelyn twisted her helmet off as it made a hissing sound. The Doctor inspected the Wanderer as she placed the helmet nearby. The woman had chestnut skin with a world-weary look on her face, her black hair tied in a messy bun as if she did it in a hurry. Her face bore both African and Asian features, such as her narrow brown eyes and jawline and a wide nose pointing upward.

She made her way to the exit and opened the door. After looking outside, it didn’t take long for her to close it quickly.

She went back to the Doctor. “Okay, I have something to ask.”

The Doctor nodded, his back leaning against the railing. He saw this one coming. “Go on.”

“Why is it bigger on the inside, and how the hell did we get on a space station?”


	3. Satellite Rock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the repost. I didn't like what I had in mind for how it went originally, so I streamlined the pacing. So here you go!

_Year: 2277  
Location: Vault 101, Capital Wasteland_

“Come on, you’ve got to wake up!”

Jocelyn’s eyes fluttered as she woke up, and she stared at a gray, sterile ceiling, highlighted by a harsh and artificial light. Alarms had blared out in the hallway. Something had gone wrong.

She stood up from her bed, stupefied and half-tired. She turned to find a close friend in front of her. Dark hair tied into a ponytail, peachy skin, and hazel eyes; Amata took up a lot from her father, the Vault’s overseer. Like Jocelyn and everyone else in the vault, Amata wore a skin-tight blue jumpsuit with a gold line running down the middle of her chest, the number 101 patched on her collar.

“Huh? What’s wrong, Amata?” she asked, still a little drowsy.

The overseer’s daughter breathed deeply, trying to settle her nerves. “You’ve got to get out of here! Your dad is gone, and my father’s men are looking for you!”

Jocelyn stared out in disbelief, and all sleepiness had vanished instantly. “What do you mean, my dad is gone? He…”

“I mean he’s left the vault! I don’t know how, but he’s gone and my father…” Amata hesitated. Jocelyn dreaded for what she would say next. “He’s kind of gone crazy.”

Jocelyn was dumbstruck. “I’ve never seen you so scared in your life, Amata. What happened?”

“It’s Jonas… they killed him! My father’s men. They took him and…” Amata’s voice wavered and her eyes watered, and she nearly fell to her knees. “Oh my god. You have to leave, now!”

“Oh my god. Are you okay?” Jocelyn asked as she helped her friend up to her feet.

Amata nodded and looked back at her. “Yeah. Don’t worry about me. I’m just sorry you had to find out like this. I know Jonas was your friend. But we’ve got to go now! My father’s men will be here any minute!”

Jonas had been around for as long as she remembered. As her father’s assistant, he always helped him in her father’s research. Hell, she even remembered the dorky smile on Jonas’s face when he told her of a surprise from her dad on her 10th birthday. And he kept that smile when he took a picture of her with a radroach she killed with her new BB gun.

And now… now he was dead. For what? Why did her father leave her behind with a man who snapped? What led him to set out to the outside world?

“That’s impossible. My dad couldn’t have left. The door’s sealed shut.” Jocelyn had her mouth agape. He couldn’t have just left. Could he?

“Not anymore, apparently. But… are you honestly telling me you had no idea your dad was leaving? He really didn’t tell you?”

Jocelyn shook her head. “No. I had no idea he was planning to leave.”

“Oh.” Amata was surprised at her answer. “I’m sorry. I’m sure he had his reasons. Maybe Jonas was supposed to explain everything to you? But it doesn’t matter. I can help you escape. I have my own plan!” She sure sounded confident.

“Escape from the vault? How?”

“Listen. There’s a secret tunnel that leads directly from my father’s office to the exit. You’ll have to hack the computer in his office to open it.” Amata pulled a small box of bobby pins out of her pocket and gave it to Jocelyn. “Use it to get in. That’s how I always get in,” she said with a wry smile.

It was either escape to the world outside to find her father or stay here and have the Overseer’s men execute her. Jocelyn’s lips curled after coming to that conclusion. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s get out of here!”

“Oh, one more thing.” Amata gave Jocelyn a blocky laser pistol along with its holster. “I stole one of my father’s guns. I hope you won’t need it, but you’d better take it just in case.” She also gave her several fusion cells.

Jocelyn lifted the pistol in her trembling hands. Mint condition, like it never fired. She had no problem killing radroaches and other pests. But a human being, people she knew all her life? She wasn’t so sure.

She looked back at her friend. “Thanks, Amata. I promise I’ll use it as a last resort.”

Amata nodded. “Okay. I’ll try to meet you at the exit. Watch out for security. Good luck!”

Amata made a beeline for the exit. Jocelyn put the holster on her right thigh and placed the new pistol in it. She looked around the room and grabbed a baseball bat and her old BB gun, and its pellets, on the desk. If she didn’t stop, she would forget to grab some spare Vault jumpsuits, her baseball cap, and the 14th issue of Grognak the Barbarian. On the way out, she grabbed a stack of stimpaks from the first aid kit at the door.

She stopped and looked back at her bedroom. There would not be any going back. Amata made that clear.  She would need to get out of here and find her father. Hopefully, he would have some answers.

With a sharp intake, she stepped out of her room.

* * *

_Year: 2286?  
Location: Unknown_

The Doctor blinked in surprise, but going by that toothy smile of his, he was quite happy to answer. “Well,” he said as he clasped his hands together. “Normally people don’t ask. They just go all ‘Oh!’ and ‘Ah!’ and ‘It’s bigger in the inside!’”

“You haven’t answered my question,” Jocelyn replied.

“This might be an extraordinary and involved answer, but I will do my best to answer. One moment.” The Doctor raised his bony index finger and rushed off to a nearby stairway leading to a level below. She wasn’t quite sure if she should call out to get his attention, but he came back up with two featureless cubes in his hands, one larger than the other.

“To start things off, insides and outsides are not in the same dimension.” He placed the larger one on the console and stepped back. “Take it from your perspective. Which box is larger?”

“The one on the console,” she answered, pointing at said box.

“Technically that’s correct, but you’re thinking in terms of Euclidean geometry,” the Doctor replied. “From where I’m standing, the box in my hand is larger than the one on the console. If you keep that same distance away and have it here, the larger one can fit inside the smaller one.”

Jocelyn raised a finger in protest. “But that doesn’t—” She internalized that irritated grunt that nearly escaped her lips. “So this place is like a… different dimension?” She hoped it made sense, albeit in a convoluted, fitting ten pounds of Brahmin crap in a five-pound bag way.

“That’s trans-dimensional engineering,” the Doctor answered before placing both cubes back in the cabinet below. “A keystone of Time Lord technology. As I’ve said earlier, we’re in the TARDIS. Short for Time And Relative Dimension in Space.”

“TARDIS? So we’re in a time machine,” Jocelyn noted. Her gaze went off in a slightly different direction.

“Yes. Does that help?”

“Yeah, but…” She set her eyes on the Doctor. “What are you, exactly?”

The Doctor crossed his arms behind his back and for no reason other than to look official, pace around the console. “I’m a Time Lord. We’re one of the oldest civilizations out there. I mean, in _my_ universe.” He paused and fell silent for a moment. “I ran away nearly two thousand years ago with this TARDIS.”

“You’re immortal? Or are you long-lived?”

“Correct on the second account,” the Doctor replied. “Each of us has this ability to regenerate, to cheat death. It can only happen twelve times or, the High Council really likes you, grant you additional regenerations. Side effect of regeneration. A different look, a different body, and a different personality. Rattles the brain every time it happens.”

Jocelyn tilted her head. She wasn’t sure what to make of this silly old man. “How did you get here? Is it possible to travel between different universes?”

“Not these days,” said the Doctor. “Speaking of which…”

The time traveler approached the console and brought the monitor from the other side to this spot. Jocelyn stepped behind him as he pressed a series of buttons and flicked some switches, his eyes focused on the screen. She leaned forward as words appeared on the screen.

_DATE: APRIL 14 TH, 4356_

More words appeared on the screen.

_RIFT DETECTED_

_SEVERITY: LOW BUT RISING_

_SIZE: SLIGHTLY LARGER BUT STILL SMALLER THAN BELGIUM_

“Belgium? That small Pre-War nation?” Jocelyn wondered with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes. She was so glad she paid attention in class at Vault 101, unlike Butch.

“Bit anticlimactic, I know,” the Doctor replied, still studying the screen, his face stoic yet indecipherable.

“So what kind of rift are we talking about? Did it bring you here?”

The Time Lord shrugged.

“So any idea where it is?”

After the Doctor pressed more buttons, the words on the screen now read:

_LOCATION: UNKNOWN_

The Doctor sucked his cheeks in, disappointed. “Oh. That’s… unfortunate.”

There was a knock at the door. Once, then twice, both urgent. As their attention was brought to the door, they exchanged looks. With a tile of her head, Jocelyn urged the Doctor to go check it out. And he did, opening the door.

A man barged in, bumping into the Doctor, sweat covering his brow. He was pale with combed dark hair, reaching down to the base of his neck while his angular chin sported a short beard. A hunched posture and a worried look in his eyes would tell her and the Doctor that there was a lot on his mind or something terrible was going on.

“Oh, so sorry!” said the man with an English accent after dusting off the shoulder of his green uniform. “What in God’s name is taking you so long?”

The Doctor arched an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

“Well, I saw the TARDIS appearing, so I…” The man stopped himself and cleared his throat before straightening his posture. “My apologies, sir. I’m Dr. Alexander Rand. I’m the administrator of the Icarus UGIT station.”

“What’s UGIT?” Jocelyn asked.

“United Galactic Intelligence Taskforce. Used to be called the United Intelligence Taskforce back in the day,” Dr. Rand answered.

“They’re the ones that defend Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats,” the Doctor finished. The administrator offered his hand, and the Doctor shook it. “A pleasure, Dr. Rand. Mind telling us what’s going on?”

“Well, uh…” Rand hesitated as he snapped his fingers and paced around. “Do either of you know a thing or two about the Ania?”

The Doctor shook his head. “What are they?”

“Well… Imagine if… itsy-bitsy organisms—whole colonies of them—able to bond with any crystalline or amorphous solid. They latch on the glass, they _rely_ on the glass. They’re one of the deadliest predators in the universe. They’re quick on their feet and can well rip any flesh apart in seconds.”

Jocelyn stepped toward the two men. “What do these Ania look like?” she asked.

“They’re shaped like lizards, larger than your average household dog. Some of them vary. Tail length, the shape of the head, width… You name it,” the administrator answered. “Several of them disappeared a couple months ago. They didn’t break free from their containment, sounded any alarms. They just… disappeared, like that.” He snapped his fingers together. “Why? You’ve found them before?”

The Doctor nodded, a grim look on his face. “We’ve encountered them before.”

“I see. But that’s not all.” Alexander took a deep breath. “We’re also having problems with the Cybermen.”

The Lone Wanderer furrowed her brow. “The Cybermen?”

“It’s best if I show you.” With that, he left the TARDIS in a hurry, and the Doctor followed.

As she put her helmet back on, Jocelyn stepped out of the TARDIS and into a room large enough to fit a whole suburban house. Looking around, this matched what she imagined what a CEO would have. Large, open space between a singular, futuristic door and a wooden desk carved so well and so perfectly it almost looked natural. And no executive office would ever be complete without an extravagant red carpet laid out beneath her feet. The holographic-looking glob of an alien planet on the desk was just the cherry on top.

She turned to her left toward a window that encased the entire wall before her. Out there, she saw a blue sun shimmering in the starry, black void that was outer space. The star vastly dwarfed over a smaller celestial body that was wreathed in an atmosphere that gave off a sickly, green-brown glow. She couldn’t exactly tell what surrounded the planet, but it let out a beautiful gleam to it.

All this about outer space and being in a space station made her thought of Mothership Zeta and her crew. With that, her heart sank just a little. Last he heard of them was years ago, back when she traveled to the ruins of Chicago. She couldn’t get a hold of them nor could she use the beacon at the Capital Wasteland to teleport her up to the ship. With everything that happened since Chicago, she could only assume the worst.

“If you’re done gawking about, we could use you for a moment,” Alex called out, snapping Jocelyn out of her thoughts.

She followed her gaze to the Doctor and the administrator standing in front of a giant, bodiless screen that happened to float. “What is it?”

“We have a bit of a problem,” the Doctor stated, clasping his hands together.

“Clearly, that’s understanding what I’ve said,” Alex added. “Two problems, in fact.”

“What’s the first one, then?” she asked.

“Cybermen,” the administrator answered while looking at her. “You said you wanted to know what they are, right?”

She nodded. The administrator turned to the screen and tapped on it as if it was solid, conjuring footage of a group of humanoids in silver armor, shooting beams from their light bulbs on top of their heads at men and women in a large lobby. Their faceplates were flat, only having beady circles for eyes and thick lines for mouths. A moment later, and one of them trained their ‘eyes’ on the camera. A light appeared on their head and the feed cut off. Only static remained before Alexander swiped the video off the screen.

This whole time, Jocelyn looked on in horror. Deep inside her was an urge screaming and whimpering at the back of the mind to turn away, not to watch it any further. But she won’t. She had seen things far worse than this.

The Doctor turned to look at Jocelyn before she could say a word. “The Cybermen were once human, like you.” He paced around, left to right. “Driven by survival, they augmented themselves with cybernetic implants. Perfectly sound idea. Unfortunately, they added in more and more cybernetics, stripping away all the organic parts, becoming obsessed with converting every other life form in the universe. They provided an ultimatum: convert or die.”

“Sounds like that’s what the Brotherhood is afraid of. The endpoint of technological process without restraint,” Jocelyn muttered. The more she thought about it, the more she focused on the mental image of a Cyberman, the more it looked… wrong in so many ways. “How many of these Cybermen are there?”

“Enough to be considered an army. Maybe an entire fleet,” Alex replied. “If we don’t stop them soon enough…”

Jocelyn looked at the administrator and uttered the words she never thought she would say in a long time, “Then we need to take care of them before people get killed.”

“You’re brave, I’ll give you that. But here’s another thing.” He raised his hand and moved it to the right of him, bringing up an image of the planet to them. With a tap on the planet’s image, it revealed a pulsing red dot near the equator, where a large cloud had formed. “There’s an anomalous signal that’s been agitating the Ania colonies for months.”

“There are colonies of these creatures?” Jocelyn asked in surprise. “How did this signal agitate them?”

Alex waved his hand again, which an image of a massive, eight-legged, creature manifested, with crystal shards of all colors in place of scales, its underside rimmed with shards long enough to be a few inches above the ground. Inspecting it further, Jocelyn couldn’t help but compare it to a dragon from fantasy books and fairy tales. If she could those tree-like limbs on its back wings.

“That’s the Ania queen. Think of her colony like how a bee queen overlooks a bee colony,” the Doctor explained. “What we found on your Earth were stragglers. The workers at RobCo have sealed them off in the basement. I can imagine, most of them went docile because they couldn’t bear the reality without their queen. It would be like a child growing up without their parents’ guidance. Feral, alone, afraid. Because if they weren’t…”

He pointed at the screen, now showing a room with crystals growing over the metallic floor, walls, and ceiling.

“You’re containing them. For what purpose?” Jocelyn asked again.

“To save them. Icarus is a research station. While the planet’s impossible for colonization due to its sulfuric atmosphere and constant volcanic eruptions, its unique minerals make anyone willing to harvest the planet and exploit its inhabitants for a quick buck,” Alex added. “But the Ania are dangerous. Some of Montreal’s men were injured one time when one of the big ones broke out.”

“Montreal?” An incredulous Time Lord asked. “That’s a bit of a silly name, doesn’t it?”

“Max Montreal. He’s the Chief Head of Security. Bit of an arse, but that’s his job,” Alex answered. “Outside of that, he’s pretty cool. You just have to get used to it.”

The Doctor had his hand on his chin as he contemplated his answers. After a moment, he said, “Take me to the planet. We still need to find out what’s wrong with the Ania hive queen.”

 “Can I come along, Doctor?” Jocelyn asked.

The Doctor shook his head. “I would love to have you come along, but no. I’m sorry. I have to do this the only way I know how.”

“And what’s that?”

“Talk some sense into it,” he stated, shrugging. “Well, in a way. Trust me on this one, okay?” Despite the Doctor giving her a wink and a smile, she still wasn’t quite so certain.

“What about you, then?” Alexander asked her.

Jocelyn looked at the administrator. “Then we need to take care of these… Cybermen before any more people get killed. I’ll help with whatever I can.”

“Okay,” Alex acknowledged with a nod. “You’ll rendezvous with OMI and Dr. Sami Yoko. They’ll fill you in on the—”

“Wait. Stop. Stop right there.” The Doctor pointed at the administrator. “What’s OMI?”

“Omni Mutual Intelligence for short. They’re mostly into linguistics and communication, but everything else? You’ll be very grateful to them. We paid them for all that, by the way.” Alex cleared his throat. “Then it’s settled, I take it?”

Both the Wanderer and the Doctor confirmed their decision. “Yes,” they said separately.

“Max and his team will provide you with backup, Doctor.” Alex tapped on the right side of his head, pressing his fingers against an earpiece. “Max, get your team ready and set up an expedition. The Doctor will join you in a moment.”

And with that, the administrator and the Doctor made their leave. Jocelyn’s eyes followed the Doctor and Alex before looking back at the blue sun and the planet. She still tried to wrap around what she agreed to. It had been years since she was being all heroic, doing big things for everyone, saving lives and all that.

“I have a bad feeling bad about this,” she said to no one in particular.

* * *

 _Planet: Ania_  
_System: Icarus_  
_Cluster: Rico_  
_Type: Rock_  
_Mass: .8 Earth Mass_  
_Orbital Distance: 25 AU_  
_Orbital Period: 12 Earth Years_  
_Keplerian Ratio: 0.5-1.5, varying on time of year_  
_Radius: 4,103.19 km (2549 miles)_  
_Day Length: 8 Earth Hours_  
_Atmospheric Pressure: 1 atm_  
_Surface Temperature: 50 C°_  
_Surface Gravity: 0.56 g_  
_Satellites: n/a_

The Doctor sat in the back of the shuttle, his body bracing against harness as he was sandwiched between two of Max’s security team members. The shuttle itself was small, enough to fit a dozen people.

Save for him and Max Montreal, everybody’s armor was the same: camo gray with padding all over their bodies and armed with blocky pulse rifles. The Doctor had his orange hazmat suit, or a spacesuit as he insisted to Clara one time.

One moment, Montreal, a broad-jawed, black-haired man in armor fancier than the others’, was ready to make a speech. The next, alarms blared out as a sudden wham brought the shuttle out of course. Max flew off his feet with a surprised yelp, his hands maintaining a firm grip on the railing planted on the ceiling as the others rocked forward and collided with the harnesses.

A long, crystalized limb smashed through the front, crushing the pilot into nothingness before he could do anything. The limb retracted, showing three long, giant talons as it disappeared into the green mist.

“Ah hell, that’s the queen!” he exclaimed with wide eyes through the glowing blue visor. “Better hope we make the landing!”

The shuttle landed on solid ground. Every piece that still hung on the shuttle broke off with each bounce before it came to a grinding halt. The Doctor looked up after swinging the harness up, finding Max checking on the others. With the front gone, a fourth of the team went missing. Everyone else was too injured to move.

Worse yet were cracks forming on the Doctor’s faceplate and Max took notice. He gasped to breathe for air. “Let me get that fixed right now.” The security chief went for a container nearby that read ‘Repair gel’. Swinging it open, he grabbed a canister and sprayed the gel on the faceplate. Within seconds, the cracks had vanished.

The Doctor let out a gasp as he found himself able to breathe again. “Thank you.”

“Just doing my job, Doctor.”

A roar bellowed and echoed outside the wreckage of a shuttle, causing the very ground to shake. The Doctor went past Max and hopped down from the ship. He looked upward, finding the massive crystal creature raising its head to the sky, its jaw with its many, many teeth wide open.

The Doctor knew this problem was far larger than anyone could realize.

* * *

_Back at the station…_

The elevator raced down the elevator. Jocelyn noticed it was going more slowly than she would have liked. Was it just her or did these Cybermen sabotaged it somehow?

 _You’d think things would be more… convenient in this time period_ , she thought.

She was alone in this circular and nearly-pristine elevator, and she felt cramped in her no thanks to her power armor. Only the transparent door in front of her door gave her the view of the station’s inner works, and that was very brief as each floor sped by. She wasn’t quite certain if she was in the mood for some small talk with a random stranger, nor could she tolerate that cheery bit of music looping on repeat. How anyone could tolerate that for so long would be a mystery to her. Still, she had occupied the time by checking her weapons.

The Wanderer brought up her holorifle and cocked it. Inside, the barrel was filled with fusion cells, which was enough for a full round before reloading. That alone brought relief to her.

As she was about to check on her plasma pistol, the Glock-like MPLX Novasurge, a sound chime on an interface next to the door. She brought her hand up in front of it, only to yank it back somewhat when the interface brought forth a moving image of a woman in a uniform like Alexander’s but red. The Japanese woman looked young, somewhere in her twenties, with fair skin and dark brown hair.

“Hello? This is Dr. Yoki Sami, chief engineer,” the woman spoke, looking at Jocelyn. “Are you receiving this?” Her form flickered and simmered.

Jocelyn’s hand tapped on the interface, the button reading ‘respond’. “Seems like the signal’s a little spotty, but I read you loud and clear,” she replied.

“We need help with—” The engineer’s image flickered once again. “—ybermen have sabotaged the—Only way to disable the overload is at the engineering—.”

Jocelyn’s eyes grew wide under her helmet as worry started to set in. If what she inferred was right, then not only would many people would die, but the station’s destruction would certainly cause chaos in its vicinity. “Are you and OMI safe?” she asked.

“I’m sorry? I didn’t catch that.”

“Are you two somewhere safe?” Jocelyn repeated.

“Yeah, but not for long. I—”

There was a booming sound playing through the speakers, soon followed by the elevator rating for several seconds. Jocelyn stumbled as she lost her footing for a second. As she regained her balance, she saw the chief engineer’s expression on her face turned into that of fear.

“Oh no…” Sami muttered as she turned her head toward the source of the noise. The engineer made a budge as the quality of her image worsened to a point the Wanderer could barely tell what was going on.

“Dr. Yoko, just hold on as long as you can!” the Lone Wanderer exclaimed. She tried to say more, only for Sami’s image to vanish.

Jocelyn let out a sullen sigh as her shoulders slumped. She hoped this piece-of-crap elevator would bring her in time. After what felt like minutes to her, it thankfully did stop, as well as that annoying music. It dinged as the door slid open in front of her.

“ _Now arriving at Engineering_ ,” a masculine voice toned out of the intercom. That voice was cheery but in a very fabricated and very fake way.

She stepped outside of the elevator, the stack of holorifle resting against her shoulder. It was a good thing this weapon had night-vision; there was little in the way of lighting. Looking down the scope, she found the elevator had brought her down to a three-way hallway, each walkway fashioned by a series of pipes and thick wiring. Some of the pipes were leaking with thick steam, obscuring her vision. Moving around a little informed her it shouldn’t be cramped for someone wearing a large, bulky suit of armor like her.

But the question is: which way should she go? Left, right, or forward? What did Alexander say about which way to go? “As soon as you get out of the elevator, take a left,” she remembered the administrator instructing her. “That way, it should give you easy passage to the main reactor room, but hurry. We don’t have much time.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed a dark but small sphere hanging down from the ceiling. A blinking red light had followed her every step. The Wanderer couldn’t help but wonder: who was watching her through that camera? The administrator safely at his office while keeping tabs on any survives on the station, or was it the Cybermen tracking them down?

At the bottom of her heart, she hoped it was Alexander. He brought himself to direct anyone still alive to the escape pods, should the worst come to pass. _Doctor, you better make it through this._

Taking careful steps on the walkway, she noticed a faint red glow traveling through the little holes below her feet. At every passing moment, the light grew slightly brighter. There was also an echo throughout the hallways, and Jocelyn could barely hear a deep, booming voice blaring out, “ _Main reactor room compromised! Requesting repairs!_ ”

She picked up the pace, dashing down the walkway. She didn’t care if the noises she made would attract the attention of either the Cybermen or the Ania. Or maybe both. As cliché as it sounded, it was a race against time. Not only was the chief engineer and the robot in danger, but the reactor would also soon go into a meltdown.

It wasn’t long before she couldn’t take another step without something or someone shooting at her. As she entered a rather large room with rows of consoles, interfaces, and construction lights, a blue plasma beam grazed her left shoulder, chipping the top of the piece.

” ** _Del-ete. Del-ete!_** ” a monotonous voice chanted, more than the cheery intercom voice from before.

The Lone Wanderer looked up and saw three silver-plated humanoids pointed their wrist-mounted guns at her as they descended a wide staircase in unison. Cybermen.

Jocelyn took aim with her holorifle and activated her Pip-Boy’s VATS—Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System—increasing her accuracy. Her perception of time had slowed down, adrenaline pumping through her body, her heartbeats pounding against her eardrums.

Two shots and two clusters of holographic cubes whistled through the air, leaving behind blasts in quick succession as they flew straight into the one standing in the middle. The Cyberman’s head combusted into a million pieces made of metal and brain matter flying in all directions. The rest of its body fell and slid down the stairs. The others paid no mind to their fallen comrade and continued their push.

They both fired at the same time. Before she knew it, both shots hit her, one in the chest and the other in the head. She stumbled back and there was a loud crack as she closed her eyes for a second. She shook off her daze and opened her eyes, finding her visor had cracked opened, revealing her now-angry right eye.

It will be a long night for her to fix her power armor once this was done.

With a furrowed brow and clenched teeth, the Wanderer charged forward, hip-firing her rifle at the nearest Cyberman in the chest before slamming into it with her right shoulder. The impact had sent it rolling towards the console, smashing into it as sparks flew all around. “ ** _We… are… superior…_** ” That Cyberman twitched and stuttered as electricity overloaded the cyborg’s systems before giving it a quick death.

In a single motion, her super sledge in one hand and her rifle in the other, she swung the hammer at the remaining Cyberman with one hand, and its chest caved inward. For a second, the Cyberman looked down at its chest as if it was shocked by the turn of events.

“ ** _This can-not be… p-p-oss-i-ble…_** ” Then, it feebly lifted its arms to try to fire before the Cyberman met its fate by getting its head ripped clean off from Jocelyn swinging her hammer at it.

People said she was fierce in battle, but with some cybernetic implants and the T-60 power armor, she bet she could wrestle a Super Mutant Behemoth to the ground and make it cry uncle.

With the last Cyberman down and out, she left the room, loading two fusions cells into her gun. They were stalling her, but she made short work of them.

Now back in the dark hallways, there was a crunching sound as she took a stop. She stopped and lifted her foot, finding that there were crystals growing all over the metallic floor, walls, and ceiling.

As impossible as it seemed, Jocelyn couldn’t help but find it fascinating somehow. “Where did that come from?” she muttered to no one in particular.

Her sight followed the trail of crystals, and it appeared to be traveling down the hallway before taking a sharp right. She wasn’t quite sure if she could follow the trail, but the sounds of gunfire and growls convinced her otherwise.

She followed the trail, and it led her to a wide long that went to a door sealed by the crystals trailing from the ground. There was a flashing yellow light at the top, with a pack of feral Ania growling as they closed in on two people, one human in a red jumpsuit and one not human. One of the Ania laid on the floor, seemingly dead.

Dr. Yoko was there, slumped against the wall behind her with a pistol in her hand. She was alive but injured. There were pieces of glass sticking out of her right leg. As for her robotic companion, the best way she could describe the robot was a person with a terminal for their head wearing a black-and-orange padded jumpsuit with gloves of matching colors, the black on their palms. Only the terminal screen displayed a pair of simple eyes and a line for a mouth and it had fins at the base of their face.

“Oh, hello!” The robot’s screen flashed a smile as they noticed the Wanderer stepping in. The glass creatures also turned their attention to her, as if the title of the most dangerous being in the room had just been given to her. “I am OMI, short for Omni Mutual Intelligence, and we would be very grateful if you would help us.”

Jocelyn didn’t say anything as she readied herself for combat. However, she realized not only the Ania had their attention on her, but to of them went past her in an instant. Her brow furrowing under her helmet, she looked over her shoulder, finding a lone figure standing at the other end of the hallway with a staff in hand, the lighting behind them casting a great shadow before them.

As the shadowy figure went into a combat stance, the staff in both hands and to their side, the glass creatures pounced at the figure, only for one of them to be knocked aside with a swing of the staff. The grunts the figure made sounded masculine with a slight metallic echo to it as another of the Ania leaped onto the stranger.

Seeing it clawing and chewing on the stranger, the Wanderer aimed her Holorifle and, with the help of VATS, fired once at the glass creature. As the creature turned its back against her, a cluster of holographic cubes collided on it, and it let out a pained yelp. Its grip now weakened, the stranger tossed aside the Ania to his left, crashing into the pipes.

For a second, Jocelyn thought she saw a flash of silver through her scope. Lowering her file, the light here flashed a bright yellow, confirming her assumption. In front of her was very much a Cyberman, much to her dismay. Unlike the others she fought and killed, however, this one had what seemed to be silver clothing underneath his chest piece. His head was rounder and squarish than the usual Cyberman.

“Thanks for helping me out.” Something about this tipped her off. He spoke like a normal, living human being. Not like the monotonous, robotic, and sing-song voices of the rest of the Cybermen.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…” she heard OMI muttered.

Jocelyn turned around to look at Sami as she tried to get up to her feet, seething in pain, the look in her eyes turned into one of wide-eyed fear when she looked up at the stranger. “Oh hell! Cyberman!” she cried and raised her pistol at the strange Cyberman.

The Cyberman dropped his staff like a bag of bricks, the clanging sound it made echoing down the hallway, and raised his hands up in the air. “Whoa, okay! Let’s not get hasty here! If it helps, I surrender.”

Jocelyn just stood there, stunned and silent, as she gave the Cyberman a strange look. Well, if anyone could see the look on her face underneath her helmet. She was not expecting that response from a Cyberman, of all things. “What?” she asked, confused. “That doesn’t seem…”

“Logical, right?” the Cyberman guessed, finishing her sentence. He chuckled slightly, which confused Jocelyn even further. “It’s what I’ve told the Doctor once a long time ago: to hell with logic!”

His attention was then brought to something moving around, like someone sweeping pieces of glass around. Jocelyn, as well as the others, turned around to see the what was formerly a dead Ania on the floor had now risen to its feet.

“Excuse me.” The Cyberman, without warning, swiftly picked up his staff and dashed, leaping over Jocelyn. The sudden force pushing her down made her grunt a little, and struck at the Ania, piercing through its body. The glass creature let out a death wail before he pulled the staff out and crushed its head into a million pieces.

He stood up and latched his staff onto his back. “Maybe _now_ I can earn your trust.”

“That would be wise of us to do so, methinks,” OMI agreed, wrapping their arm around the engineer’s shoulders as the robot and Yoko began walking. “Just one question, though: who are you?”

“It’s Kroton,” the Cyberman answered. “So what are you three up to?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Dr. Sami Yoko demanded before nearly tripping on her bad leg.

Even taking a casual look made Jocelyn realize the wound would become infected without any treatment. “Don’t move, all right?” she requested, gently holding onto Sami’s leg. Sami let out a pained grunt in response as Jocelyn dug into her fanny pack and pulled out one of her stimpaks. “Ready?”

Sami stared at the syringe incredulously. “What’s this?”

“It’s a stimpak. It speeds up your healing process,” Jocelyn explained. “Now hold still.”

The engineer flinched at first, but she relented and relaxed, allowing Jocelyn to gingerly drove the syringe into her forearm. The red liquid inside traveled to her bloodstream, and the cuts and gashes all over her leg all washed away, pushing the shards out as the skin on her leg stitched itself back together like cloth in a sewing machine.

“That’s… an interesting medical application,” Kroton commented, watching the engineer taking one step, then two, before continuing onward at a hurried pace.

“Indeed,” Sami agreed before glancing at Kroton. “Look, you didn’t attack us, and I do appreciate that. Right now, we need all the help we can get. We have to get to the main reactor room. Your brethren…” She caught her breath before continuing. “…the Cybermen have sabotaged it. The sooner we get there, the more likely we can stop it before it can cause catastrophic damage.”

“You’d think you would have some sort of safety measures, innit?” Kroton replied with a shrug.

Two dots and a straight line appeared on OMI’s screen. They didn’t seem to be amused at the sentient Cyberman’s remark. “How rude of you! Right now, we need any help we can get. Can you assist us?”

The robot passed by while glancing at the Cyberman before catching up to the engineer, but they were close enough for Kroton to reply, “Of course. I’m also here for other reasons.”

Before Jocelyn could catch up with the others, she looked back at the Cyberman while standing a good foot or so taller than him. “You know the Doctor?”

“Indeed, I do,” the renegade Cyberman answered. “Long story.”


End file.
